This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Infection remains a devastating complication of total joint replacement, affecting about one to four percent, of all primary procedures. Infection can occur by contamination at the surgical site at the time of the procedure or by hematogenous seeding. Possible routes for contamination at the time of surgery include the surgical team touching the implant or tissues within the operative site with contaminated gloved hands or instruments. Instruments can become contaminated because the cleaning procedures were not adequate after prior use or because the instruments were contaminated during the current surgery.
In a recent study, Davis showed that 63 percent of primary hip and knee arthroplasties had contamination in the field of operation (Davis 1999). Davis' study also showed that about 29 percent of gloves used in the primary hip and knee procedures for preparation were found to be contaminated. In another study, Maathuis showed that 30 percent of broaches used in total hip arthroplasty had bacterial contamination at the end of the procedure (Maathuis 2005).
One significant source of such contamination is when packages containing sterile implantable devices are opened in the operating room, it is almost always necessary to manually remove the implant from the packaging. In many cases, removal of the implant from the package requires handling of the implant with potentially contaminated gloves or implements, which can transfer contamination to the surface of the implant.